Eichmann trial for Holocaust crimes; judges speak indictments as Eichmann listens (partial newsreel)


This movie is part of the collection: Universal Newsreels

Production Company: Universal Studios
Audio/Visual: sound, b&w
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Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: danielmartinx - - December 30, 2009
Subject: Arendt's Detractors
The "banality of evil" line was a small line, taken out of context and used in a campaign against Arendt's book before it was published. She was referring to the fact that Eichmann was a thoughtless, ordinary, unspectacular bourgeois middle-management type, able to engage in the worst atrocities because he literally could not see beyond his immediate surroundings to any moral or human issues. To object to Arendt's phrase, you would have to prove that Eichmann was a dynamic, thoughtful, awe-inspiringly intelligent man, a mover and a shaker, who single-handedly molded anti-Semitism and the Holocaust. Which is ludicrous: he instead proves that grey-faced dull thoughtless men can do tremendous evil without even being aware of the consequences of their actions.

Reviewer: Anthony C - - July 3, 2006
Subject: The Misuse and Abuse of Hannah Arendt's Words
It is unfortunate that important historical references, such as this brief Eichmnn newsreel, is seldom accompanied by a considered interpretation of its most famous commentator, Hannah Arendt.

The notion that Arendt described either Eichmann's trial, Eichmann's crimes, or the phenomenon of Nazism as "banal" is reflective of little more than the ignorance of her detractors. There is a vital distinction between the nature and extent of Eichmann's involvement in the German genocide and the nature of the dictatorship that he slavishly served. The assumption that Eichmann the individual was a monster or demonic figure in the conventional, parochial sense obscures his true nature, and the true horror of his role in history. Equating Eichmann's person and his deeds is a dangerous misconception. Arendt observed a new phenomenon in modern history: a perpetrator of almost unimaginable crimes who himself did not and in all likelihood could not fathom the true nature of his actions. In doing so she does not seek to minimise Eichmann's responsibility or guilt, for indeed she calls for the death sentence. Her deep insights into Eichmann's role in the genocide throws light on the terrifying prospect that a human individual need not be genocidal by nature to become entangled in, and contribute towards, the manufacture of corpses.

If a man be judged by his actions, these actions do not take place within an historical vacuum. To understand Arendt's interpretation of Eichmann one must be cognisant of her analysis of the novel totalitarian dictatorship. Eichmann was one single individual within a bureaucracy of genocide. Arendt was shocked by the sheer incongruity between the nature of Eichmann's deeds and his banal personality. That not all mass crimes are committed by "monsters" is the most important lesson Arendt drew from the twentieth century.

Reviewer: Andrew Brodie - - September 12, 2005
Subject: Banality of Evil
See a short on the trial that lead to Hannah Arendt's famous -- and probably misapplied phrase "the banality of evil", which she first used in the book Eichmann in Jerusalem.

How can the trial of the mass murderer of millions of people possibily be banal?